Ambri-Piotta held on to the Swiss ice hockey league top spot on Friday after a 1-0 home victory against Lausanne.

There was little to separate the two sides in the first period of the match, with neither team looking in a great hurry to give the scoreboard operator much to worry about.

All that changed at the start of the second period, when Ambri's Burkhalter capitalised on a momentarily weak Lausanne defence to put the home crowd ahead in the 22nd minute.

If the crowd thought Burkhalter's goal was to be the start of many more, they would have been disappointed by the final period of play. 1-0 was how the match was destined to remain, as the visitors failed to mount a successful challenge to the league leaders.

Nine points separate Ambri from eighth-placed Lausanne, who now find themselves just above the cut-off line for the playoffs.

The roar of the Lions

Elsewhere in the league, defending champions the Zurich Lions appear to have put their bad start to the season behind them after beating Zug 4-2.

There was little sign of the Lions' roar in the first period of the match, as home side Zug stole the advantage to take the lead in the 7th minute courtesy of a goal from Rothen.

But Hodgson began Zurich's fightback with a goal in the 34th minute of play. The visitors then made it a further three in a row to assure the team of victory and help ease the pressure on manager Larry Huras.

Fribourg suffered an upset in their match against Davos, losing 1-3 at home to clock up their first defeat of the season at the St Léonard stadium.

Meanwhile, Bern won a comfortable 7-4 victory at home to Rapperswil, Lugano defeated the Langnau Tigers 3-0 and Chur lost out 3-4 at home to the Kloten Flyers.

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